This Is The Time
by thekitchenelf
Summary: Lia never had to many friends till she meet Wanda and Pietro. Within days the three became inseparable, but when the bomb hit they lost everything but each other. That is till someone from Lia's past gets involved and everything starts to fall apart around them all over again. Pietro/oc
1. Time In A Bottle

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey guys, so this isn't my first attempt at a story, but it's my first attempt in a really long time. Before I start I would just like to say that I'm absolutely awful at prof reading, but I've read these things at least three times before I post them in attempt to clear out as much gunk as possible. That being said if you see something wrong please let me know, and I'll do my best to fix it. That being said, I look forward to your feedback and it does keep me going, so drop a comment, or send a message I would really appreciate it.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Quicksilver or Scarlet Witch, I also don't own Sokovia, all of that belongs to Marvel, and the song lyrics used in this chapter are from Time In A Bottle which is a song by Jim Croce, so I don't own that either.

* * *

"Look Lia, it's our new home," her mother said as she gestured out the window of the Taxi. Lia couldn't see much through the frosted glass window, but she smiled anyways as a comfort to her mother. The taxi pulled up to the curb and Lia crawled out of the Taxi to the snowy sidewalk and took in the building as her mother paid the taxi driver.

The building was old and worn, much like the last complex that they lived at. However this one had many more floors than their last. Lia found herself in awe of how the building seemed to stretch above her seven year old sight. It wasn't long before her mother had unloaded their four suitcases and the taxi drove away. "What do you think," her mother asked as she looked down at her daughter with a hopeful expression.

"Tall," was all Lia said as continued to stare up at to where the building seemed to touch the sky. Her mother gave a hearty laugh, which snapped Lia out of her bewildered daze.

"This building has 20 floors, it's twice as tall as our old building," her mother said as she urged her daughter to grab the two smaller suitcases. "Now come, little mouse, let us find out new home. The women at the front desk said there were many other families here, perhaps when the snow stops you'll be able to make some friends."

Lia said nothing, but followed her mother into the new building. She knew her mother meant well by moving her to this new building, but Lia still wished that she would stop pressuring her into making friends. It was trying to make friends that had led to this being their third apartment. It wasn't that Lia was a troublemaker, just that the other kids always thought she was strange. She looked strange with her freckled face, and they felt unnerved as her quiet green eyes watched them play through wisps of curly orange hair, as she was to shy to actually go play with them. Strange was different, and being different was dangerous for a small girl on the Sokovian playground. Other children would verbally tease her, which would escalate to physically teasing her, which would lead to her mother moving them to a new building. At least this time Lia had the harsh Sokovian winter to prolong the time till the other children would begin to play around.

Eventually they had climbed the stairs to the 14th floor to room 146, their new home. It was a rather small apartment, she believed her mother called it a studio. The room had a small stove and mini fridge, the only sink was in the small closet of a bathroom, which had a shower with a curved curtain in the corner, and a toilet next to it. The rest of the room looked like it might fit a table and a few beds. Perhaps studio apartment was to generous a description for the tiny room, but her mother didn't seem put off in the slightest.

"How lovely! In a few weeks maybe we can put a bunk-bed in the corner for the two of us. For now I think a celebration is in order." Lia's mother took one of the small suitcases from her daughter and opened it up to reveal the record player inside. Once she had finished setting the player up in the corner, she searched her own suitcase and pulled out a few records, "which one should we play, little mouse?"

Lia smiled as she ran over to her mother and picked her favorite record. "Oh wonderful choice little mouse, that is exactly what we need to warm up this place." Lia began to bounce excitedly on the balls of her feet as her mother started the record.

 _If I could save time in a bottle  
The first thing that I'd like to do  
Is to save every day  
'Til eternity passes away  
Just to spend them with you _

With a smile her mother turned to the giggling girl and offered her hand, "dance with me little mouse." With an excited squeal Lia quickly took her mother's hand and they began to dance along the creaky wooden floor. This was always the best part of moving, or so Lia thought. Every time they moved her mother would let her pick out a record and they would dance together. Her mother always said it was so they could have happy memories invested in their new home before they went to sleep, and Lia had to admit that it certainly made her feel more at home.

After dancing around for hours they spread a blanket out on the floor so they could sleep for the night. As they huddled together for warmth Lia couldn't help but feel like that was the best dance they had ever had. She drifted to sleep thinking that was a good sign, and that maybe, just maybe, this new place would work.


	2. Winter Is Blue sometimes

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey guys, I really wanted to get this chapter up today because I wanted to go ahead and introduce Wanda and Pietro into the story. I have a few more chapter's written, but I need to prof read them some more. (With as bad as this one probably is you can only imagine how bad it is before my pathetic attempts at prof reading) Anyways I'm not sure how I'm going to decide when to post other chapter's just yet, so let me know what you think.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the Marvel character's or location including Wanda, Pietro, and Sokovia.

* * *

The next day Lia's mother had to go back to the diner where she worked as a waitress. "Remember Lia, if you want to roam around that is okay, but lock up when you leave," her mother said as she handed Lia the key to the front door, "and if you see any other kids you should hi." Lia gave her mother a look that seemed to scream, 'you can't be serious'. "I mean it Lia, you should make some friends, you deserve a break. WE deserve a break, there is no reason why we can't make this new place work." Lia only gave a silent nod to which her mother heaved a heavy sigh as she brushed her thumb over Lia's cheek, "now give me hug little mouse, I'll be home sometime tonight." Lia gave her mother a hug around her neck before she left, locking the door behind her.

Lia turned around and looked at the room, which was empty besides the record player and blankets that her mother had set for them the night before. Lia went to grab another record to listen to as she went about her day, and finally she settled on an artist called Vashti Bunyan. Soon the room was filled with sound, and she felt a little more at ease. Lia spent a long time looking out the window as the snow fell outside. At one point she even cracked the window open and drew flowers in the frost on her window ledge. This couldn't keep her entertained for long though, and once the record ended she found herself beginning to bundle up to head outside.

She tucked her orange hair into a thick wool cap, and wrapped herself in a thick, dark green jacket that came with matching mittens. Once she was appropriately bundled she exited the room, making sure to lock the door. She wondered through the empty halls of the building at first, wondering if perhaps anyone was playing in the halls. Once she found the building was empty, except for the occasional adult passing by on business, she exited the building through the back entrance and walked over to the empty playground.

The playground was small, and consisted of a metal carousel, a swing set with three swings, and a small play structure that had a slide. It wasn't incredibly impressive, and it was completely covered in snow, but Lia didn't mind. It would give her something to do for a little while as she waited for her mother to come home. She walked over to the swing and brushed the snow off of the seat before she began to swing back and forth. What she didn't realize is a few stories up there was another little girl, bored out her mind, watching out the window for anything to catch her attention.

~Meanwhile on the 14th floor~

Wanda never minded the winter that much, mostly because it allowed for her to stay home with her brother instead of having to go to school and sit through all of her boring lessons. Of course she still had work that needed to be done for when winter passed and she needed to go back, but for the most part she was free to do what she wished. Her brother had a similar relationship with the season, although he hated to be confined to the room for the day.

It was during one of his anxious pacing fits that Wanda was sitting at the window looking longingly outside at the playground below. She hadn't been staring for long before she saw another little girl enter the playground and sit on the swings, "Pietro, come see," she called to her brother, eager to show off what she had spotted.

Once Pietro had reached the window it didn't take long for him to spot what had perked his sister's interest, "she's crazy. It's freezing outside."

"Let's go play with her," Wanda said as she looked at her brother with excited eyes, "it's not to far from the building, mom and dad won't mind."

"It's a little early to get in a fight over the swings again isn't it," Pietro teased, giving Wanda a mischievous smirk.

"She started it" Wanda shrugged, before standing up and headed towards the coat stand to grab a warm jacket.

"Wanda," Pietro tried to warn her, but she quickly cut him off again.

"Please Pietro, I'm so bored in here," she fixed him with a pitiful look complete with a slight push to her bottom lip. With a heavy sigh Pietro grabbed his black jacket and began to get dressed for the snowy weather outside. Wanda let out an excited giggle as she and her brother quickly readied themselves to go meet the strange girl on the swings below.

~Back to Lia~

Lia loved the swings. They were her favorite part of the playground, partially because it felt like you were flying and partially because you could play on them without any one else. She could feel her nose turning red as the air chilled her face, but there was a strange freedom in the cold, the sensation of being. Lia closed her eyes and hummed softly to herself, just enjoying the peace.

"What are you singing?" Lia immediately put her feet down into the snow to stop the swing as she looked up in surprise at the girl leaning against the pole that held up the swings. She looked friendly enough with the huge smile on her face. Behind her stood a boy, they looked similar, with brown hair peaking out beneath their hats and their eyes were a similar warm brown. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. My name is Wanda, and this is my brother Pietro, what is your name?"

Lia gulped not sure if she should answer Wanda's question, not sure if these two could be trusted. Despite her silence Wanda still looked at her expectantly, though her brother raised one eye brow in a questioning look. Lia had seen that look before, he thought she was strange. Suddenly Lia felt a warmth rush to her freckled cheeks as a blush spread up her neck and to the tips of her ears. She hid her face in her green mittens hoping that maybe they would just leave before she embarrassed herself further.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you I was only wondering," Lia heard the girls try to speak, but she was interrupted by her brother.

"Come on Wanda, we can play on the carousel or something," her brother said. Lia heard the crunch of footsteps in the snow followed by the metallic squeak of what could only be the carousel. She let her hands fall from her face and began to move her feet back and forth again to make the swing move. Instead of humming this time though she watched the two new kids playing.

Lia watched as the girl sat between two metal rails as her brother began to run around pushing the carousel as fast as he could. After a few rotations he would jump onto the carousel with his sister and they would spin around together. They were having a lot of fun she noted, both were laughing fully in a way that was foreign yet familiar. Lia couldn't help but feel jealous of the two siblings, she had never been able to play on the carousel before, she could never get it going fast enough to really enjoy it, but Pietro seemed to be a master at carousel propulsion, he was even really good at jumping on once it had reached high enough speeds. Plus Wanda seemed really nice, and so open, Lia could never walk up to a stranger and ask their name like she had.

Her mother's words began to echo in her head _'you should make some friends'_. A shiver ran up her spine, but not from the cold. She stopped her swing as the boy jumped on the carousel for another set of spinning around with his sister. With a few deep breathes she got up from the swing and walked over as the carousel began to slow down.

Wanda noticed Lia first, standing awkwardly by the carousel waiting for something. She nodded her head at Pietro and he jumped off the carousel and stopped it so the two siblings could turn their attention to the strange girl.

"Lia," Wanda gave her a questioning look and Lia gulped before she continued, "my name is Lia."

Wanda's face broke into a wide grin, "hi Lia, would you like to play on the carousel with us?" As soon as his sister finished speaking Pietro gave her a glance that made Lia feel like she should probably say no, but for once there was a digging in her gut that told her not to back down. She wanted to play with them, so instead of walking away she slowly nodded her head.

"Okay, well you should sit next to Wanda then, she is really light, it throws off the balance when I jump on anyways," Pietro said with a shrug.

"I'm not that light, you're just heavy," Wanda said defensively as Lia climbed up next to her. Pietro said nothing and began to run again propelling the carousel to start spinning. Lia quickly grabbed onto the metal bars, finding it hard to keep still if she wasn't holding onto something. It wasn't long till they began to laugh together, even Pietro, and Lia had never felt more alive than she did in that moment.

After a few more times around Pietro began to breath heavy. "No more," he rasped out between breaths, "I need a break."

"Well what do we do now then," Wanda asked before turning to the girl next to her, "what do you think Lia?"

Lia bit her lip shyly and thought of all the things she never got to do because she needed more than one person, and so many things came to mind that it was hard to pick just one. "Snowballs," she finally said. There are had been a few times that she looked out of her window during the winter months and watched the other kids throw snow at each other from behind the walls of snow that they had built.

"That sounds fun. Okay it can be you and me against Pietro."

"Two against one isn't fair," Pietro protested.

"It's perfectly fair," Wanda said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "you always win snowball fights, this way Lia and I can stand a chance."

"Whatever," Pietro sighed, "you two have 5 minutes to prepare."

And just like that Wanda jumped from the carousel and grabbed Lia's hand and dragged her over to an oddly placed pile of snow, "okay Lia, I'll pat out the wall and you can make the snowballs, okay?" Lia only nodded to Wanda, and grabbed a fist full of snow and attempted to roll it between her hands like she had watched other kids do from her window. It took a few attempts, but soon she had figured out enough of the art to begin to produce snowballs as a pretty decent rate.

"Wow, you made you a lot of those pretty fast, I'm impressed," Wanda said as she took in the pile of a few dozen medium sized snowballs that she had managed to create, "Pietro cheats at this by the way, so keep an eye out."

"How," Lia asked curiously, in all the snowball fights she had witnessed she had never seen how someone could cheat.

"I have no idea, but he is way to good at this to be playing fair," Wanda shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Lia smiled, she wasn't sure if she believed that someone could cheat during a snowball fight, but she supposed she would just have to wait and see.

They played for what felt like forever, and it wasn't long before Lia could see why Wanda thought her brother was a cheater. He was really good at sneaking around, which said something considering he wore such a darkly colored coat. If Pietro didn't want you to see him you didn't, and it costed Wanda a few handfuls of snow down her coat. Although now that Wanda had a teammate those sorts of attacks normally landed him with a snowball to the face courtesy of Lia.

Hours passed without them noticing before suddenly, "Pietro, Wanda, get your butts up here now!" The three kids froze as the angry voice range out from a window above the playground. The siblings had lost track of time and now their mother was home, and they had promised to stay in the room that day.

"Sorry Lia, we have to go inside," Wanda said sadly. Lia only smiled and nodded showing she understood. "Maybe we can play some more tomorrow."

"Yeah if we aren't grounded for the rest of the winter," Pietro said with a huff as he began to leave the playground. Wanda smiled nervously as she began to follow her brother with Lia following close behind, "it's so awesome that we live in the same building, now we can play together all the time!" Lia only nodded in response. It wasn't long till they reached the 14th floor and all three excited the staircase. "You live on this floor too!" Lia nodded, this time with a little more excitement, she couldn't help it, Wanda's personality was contagious. "That's awesome, what room?"

"146," Lia said as they walked down the hall.

"We're in 148, so we're next door! This is going to be so awesome, right Pietro," Wanda asked as she tugged on her brother's sleeve.

"Yep," although he still seemed really disinterested to Lia. Perhaps he was only trying to entertain his sister, which Lia didn't mind, as long as he didn't pick on her she was okay. Out of the two siblings Pietro was the most intimidating. He seemed nice, but there was also something about him that just seemed to scream dangerous and Lia didn't want to found how just how dangerous he could be.

It wasn't long till they stood in front of their doors, "I'll see you later Lia," Wanda said as Lia unlocked the door to her apartment, "I have a feeling we're going to be great friends."

"Me too," Lia muttered softly as she gave the siblings a soft smile. They seemed surprised that Lia had said more than one word AND smiled at them. After an exchange of smiles they went their separate ways. The siblings to their apartment, and Lia to her empty one. Quickly Lia changed out of her now clothes, now wet from all the snow. This time when she shivered it was from the cold, she turned the stove on and tried to warm up now that she was in dry clothes.

Once she was resettled she walked over to the record player and sorted back through her albums. She smiled as she grabbed the same record her mom and her had been listening to the night before. As Time In A Bottle began to play Lia felt like songs like this were made for days like today, which would go down to her as the first day home alone that she didn't spend, well, alone.

It wasn't till a few hours after dark that her mother came home with food from the diner for dinner. "This record again? Don't you ever get tired of this song?" Lia just smiled and shook her head as she sat down with her mother to eat dinner. "So, what did you do today?"

Lia paused mid-chew, she wasn't really sure how to explain what she did today. Sure Wanda had said that they would play together again, but did that mean they were friends? Is that how people made friends? All of her time spent watching other kids never really told her how they became friends, it was just clear that they were, or that they weren't. She thought back to the snowball fight and how Wanda and Pietro interacted with each other, how Pietro would stuff snow down his sister's shirt, and how she would return the favor with a handful of snow to his face. Lia didn't really do anything like that, she just made snowballs, and normally she just handed them to Wanda besides the rare halfhearted throw that Lia would make, which normally missed. She supposed they weren't friends, not yet, but perhaps after a few more day of playing they would be. "I played on the playground."

"That sounds like fun, I'm not surprised you've already broken the swings in. Did you meet anybody," Lia felt slightly taken aback by how hopeful her mother sounded. She still wasn't sure if she should tell her mother about the siblings, she didn't want to get her mother's hopes up. However she couldn't lie to her mother, so she took one more bite of her food and prepared herself for having a full blown conversation about her day.

"I meet these two siblings, a brother and sister," Lia tested the waters, silently hoping her mother wouldn't be to pushy about the topic.

"Oh really," immediately Lia knew that her hope was nothing but wishful thinking, her mother wanted to know everything, "what are their names?"

"Wanda and Pietro."

"What lovely names! Did you play with them?"

 _Of course I played with them_ , Lia thought to herself. _Why else would I know their names?_ Instead of sassing her mother though Lia simply nodded.

"Well tell me about it. Did you guys have fun?"

"Yeah, we played on the carousel, and had a snowball fight." She began to nervously push her food around with her plastic fork. Luckily for Lia her mother took notice of her daughter's growing anxiousness, and figured she was satisfied with her daughter's answers so far.

"Well that sounds like a lot of fun. Hopefully you'll be able to play more with them in the future. I'm glad you enjoyed your day sweetie," and just like that the conversation was dropped although Lia couldn't help but notice how her mother was failing to hide her beaming smile for the remainder of the dinner.


	3. 20 Questions

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow, so this chapter went through much editing it went from 5 pages to 7. I wasn't going to post this one so soon, but I finished editing the next chapter and I really wanted to get that one out, so expect that coming up. Also I originally wasn't going to name their mother, but she ended up becoming important, so I used Magda like their mom in the comic-verse, but this isn't the same Magda and obviously their dad isn't Magneto, so just keep that in mind. Let me know if you see any typos, or just want to say something.

DISCLAIMER: Once again I don't own anything here that belongs to Marvel.

* * *

The next morning followed much the same pattern as the morning before. Starting with Lia's mother headed to work, saying that she hoped she had a good day. Afterwards Lia put on another record and sat at the window, although this time as she stared at the park below she replayed the events from the day before. She felt a ghost of a smile come across her face as she thought of Wanda's infectiously curious demeanor, and she even recalled Pietro's mischievous antics with slight fondness. As time went by she sort of hoped that she would see them on the playground so she could go out and play with them again.

After sitting at the window for a few hours Lia was surprised by a knock at the door. She rushed over to the door, but paused once she had reached it. No one had ever knocked while she was by herself before, and she wasn't sure if her mother would want her to answer it, but what if it was Wanda? After a few moments of contemplation and a few deep breaths she opened to door to see Wanda with an excited smile. Even Pietro was standing behind her, though he looked completely disinterested gazing at the ceiling with his hands in the pockets of his black athletic pants.

"Hey Lia, do you want to come over and play with us today," Wanda asked, leaning her head to gesture towards their own apartment. Lia nodded shyly and opened the door wider welcoming into her apartment since she still needed to change out of her flower print pajamas.

"Wow, this place is really empty," Pietro said as he noticed the three suitcases and record player in the corner.

Wanda elbowed her brother painfully in the stomach, "don't be a jerk Pietro."

"It's okay," Lia said, taking them both by surprise, "mom and I have only been here for two days."

It took the siblings a moment to recover from what was the longest sentence that they had ever heard the quiet girl say. "Oh, I guess that explains it," Wanda felt that Lia was beginning to open up a little bit to them. She quickly made it her goal to get a full two sentences out of Lia by the end of the week.

"What about your dad," Wanda elbowed her brother a second time for asking such a sensitive question.

"I don't know," Lia said with a shrug. She never really worried about her father. Lia had never meet the man and her mother had been able to raise her just fine, so she had never questioned where her father was. It took Lia a few minutes to grab a gray wool sweater and some black cargo pants then change in the small bathroom. Once she was done she saw Pietro and Wanda going through the records that were sitting next to the record player.

"This looks so cool," Wanda said, "I've never seen a record player before."

Lia smiled, she was very proud of that record player. It was the most valuable thing they owned, and they put it to very good use. "One day we'll have to come over here and play with is. Would that be okay Lia?' Wanda fixed her with a hopeful stare. Lia smiled and nodded, she would love to show off her record player to people. Maybe they could even dance together.

"Okay, that is really cool and all, but mom said she wanted us back in five minutes," Pietro said as he moved away from the pile of records, "I have other things to get in trouble for."

"Maybe if you weren't so set on causing trouble mom wouldn't be so angry about us being a minute or two late," Wanda suggested with an accusing tone.

"Someone has to stir things up, if not imagine how boring everything would be," Pietro said with a mischievous half smirk, in response Wanda just rolled her eyes before grabbing Lia's hand and leading her out of the apartment. Normally it would only take Lia a second to lock doors, this one in particular had a quirk where you needed to push up on the doorknob while trying to lock it or else it wouldn't work, but she found herself stalling. She was nervous to go over to their apartment. They made it sound like their mother was home, which means not only would she have to worry about doing something dumb in front of Wanda and Pietro, but now there was a chance that she could make a bad first impression on their mother too.

She found her palms starting to sweat, and then the key started to slip from her hand, "here let me help," Pietro said as he gently nudged Lia out of the way, "the doors here can be a little tricky, you just have to push up on the knob." It took Pietro less than a second to lock the door, and as he turned to give Lia back the key he had what was quickly becoming his signature crooked smirk.

"You don't have to show off Pietro, Lia is new here, she probably doesn't know about the stupid doors," Wanda said, trying to wipe the smug smirk off her brother's face. He just rolled his eyes as he moved to 148 and held the door open for the two girls.

"There they are, late, as usual," Lia looked to see the woman who she could only assume was their mother, "and this must be Lia. It's a pleasure to meet such a cute little girl."

Lia couldn't deny that their mother look really pretty. She had the same dark brown hair and deep eyes as her children. Her hair was pulled into messy bun, which still managed to flatter her beautiful facial features. This women looked somewhere between a mother and a model, and that left Lia torn between feeling welcomed and intimidated. She grabbed the sleeve of Wanda's maroon sweater nervously, which surprised both girls for the same reason. Lia felt comforted by the sleeve of Wanda's sweater, and grasping it reminded her that they were there, which was not a comfort Lia was use to.

"Sorry mom, Lia is sort of shy," Wanda explained to her mother who looked surprised at the young girl's response.

"Well that is okay," the surprise was quickly replaced with a warm smile, and it became very clear where Wanda got her warm smile from, "there is no need to feel shy Lia, any one that can put up my children is more than welcome here. My name is Magda by the way," Their mother finished off her statement with a wink.

"You mean anyone that can put with Pietro," Wanda laughed.

"Oh yeah, because everyone knows I'm the unbearable one," Pietro's statement oozed with sarcasm and Lia let out a light giggle, which Wanda noticed.

"No way, Lia you can't possible agree with Pietro," Wanda looked betrayed at the girl holding onto her sleeve.

"I just don't know how Pietro can say that with a straight face," Lia issued the challenge, and Wanda began to laugh loudly as her brother let out an offended gasp.

"Come now, I haven't even pranked you yet."

"Which is exactly why she doesn't trust you twin of mine. It's obvious who got all the good behavior genes," Wanda said through her laughter.

"You guys are twins," Lia asked in surprise. Somehow it had never come up between them, and Lia had just assumed Pietro was older, since he was a little bit taller than Wanda, and came off as really protective of his sister.

"Yeah, didn't we mention that yesterday," Wanda responded. Lia just shook her head in response.

"Well I am 12 minutes older than you," Pietro interjected, "so you're still my baby sister." Wanda gave her brother the stink eye, and was about to argue with him till their mother interrupted.

"Well, I'll you kids to play, I'm baking cookies, so stay out of the kitchen. I don't want anyone to be tempted to sneak some cookie dough," their mother turned to walk away, "that means you Pietro."

"Mom," Pietro whined after his mother, and Wanda just laughed before she grabbed Lia's wrist and guided her over over to a cabinet filled with board games.

"Which do you want to play Lia? Candyland is my favorite," Wanda asked as she showed off all the games that they had. Lia had never seen so many games outside of a toy store before, the twins had 6 different games. She had never experienced any of these games before, so Lia just pointed to the game that Wanda had mentioned. Wanda excitedly grabbed the game and began to set it up, but she didn't explain any of the rules. Lia silently hoped that she could get the hang out it after watching them play a round.

"Pietro," Wanda called to her brother, "we going to play Candyland without you if you don't get over here now!"

"Jesus fine, I call blue," Pietro said as he sat down on one side of the game board. Wanda smiled and sat in front of the board, and Lia sat directly across from Pietro.

"What color do you want to play Lia," Pietro asked, Lia nervously picked the green person, and Wanda picked the red one, "okay awesome, why don't you go first Lia?"

Lia froze, she wasn't expecting them to pick her for first, "um, it's okay, you can go," she said nodding towards Wanda.

"But you have never played with us before, so you should have the honor," Wanda said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Lia gulped and looked down at the board that has their three people on the start tile, and a single deck of cards. She had no idea what to do, nervously she tucked an orange curl behind her ear and chewed on her lip.

"You know what, I think I'll go first," Pietro said as he reached for the deck of cards. Lia glanced at him curious as to why he went first. Pietro winked and graced her with a half smile that spoke for him, ' I know something you don't'. Immediately the relief drained from Lia and it was replaced with a mixture of curiosity and awe, somehow Pietro had figured her out, she wasn't sure how, or what he had figured out exactly, but it was clear he picked up on something.

"That's not nice Pietro, we already said that Lia could go first," Wanda protested.

"Well I've already drawn a card, and it says two purples, so I'm moving to the second purple space and there is nothing you can do to stop me," Pietro said very matter-of-fact. Wanda huffed and insisted that I go before she went. It was rather easy once Pietro had cunningly explained the rules without Wanda catching on. When the finished playing Pietro had won and Wanda was furious.

"No fair, you cheated," Wanda openly accused her brother.

"How can I cheat at Candyland, all it is is drawing cards and doing what they say?"

"You picked up two cards and used the one that helped you the most!"

"I only did that once, and it was an accident and we agreed, as a group, that I should just pick one and put the other on the bottom of the pile. That isn't cheating," Pietro said as he stuck his tongue out at his sister.

"Mom, Pietro cheated!"

"Did not!'

"Did too!"

"Children, play nice together or you can't have any cookies," their mother said as she walked into over to them with a chocolate chip cookie in hand, "you can have one though Lia dear, they just came out of the oven."

"Mom," Wanda and Pietro complained at the same time.

Their mother just laughed, "only kidding loves, go ahead and grab one." Wanda and Pietro rushed over to the dining table next to where the stove was to grab cookies leaving Lia behind with their mother, "you'll be good for them Lia. Lord knows they could learn a thing or two from you about behaving a little calmer. You're welcome here whenever you want sweetie, they need to be around someone besides each other." Their mother gave Lia a little wink and a smile that made Lia feel instantly at ease.

Once their mother stood up to walk away Lia felt some words bubble from deep within her, "thank you."

"You're more than welcome sweetie." Lia had never felt more at home without her mother around, and as she looked back at Wanda and Pietro fighting over which cookie was the largest on the plate she couldn't help but smile and think that for the first time ever this could really work.

After they had settled on their cookies Wanda showed Lia how to properly rebox the game of Candyland and they were back to know really knowing what to do. "What do you want to do now Lia?" Wanda asked, and Lia responded with only a silent shrug.

"Maybe we should play 20 questions," Pietro suggested, "Lia didn't even know we were twins. This way we could learn a little more about each other and stuff."

"Yeah that sounds like a great idea, do you want to do that Lia," Wanda asked, eager to do whatever Lia wanted to do.

"How do you play?"

"Someone asks a question, then they answer their own question, then everyone else gives their answer to the question to. They tend be small questions , like favorite color, or animal," Wanda explained. Lia thought that it sounded like a decent thing to do. It would be nice to know the twins a little better. "Okay, I'll go first, what is your favorite color? Mind is red."

"I like blue," Pietro said, then the siblings looked at Lia, urging her to give her answer as well.

"Um, I like a lot of colors."

"Come on Lia, you have to have a favorite color, you wear a lot of green, is that your favorite color?"

Lia just shrugged at Wanda and began to fiddle with on of her orange curls, "green just doesn't clash with my hair color," she explained, "I guess I do really like green though."

"Fair enough, my turn," Pietro said with a shrug, "How old are you? Wanda and I are 10."

"7," the small circle they had formed suddenly got quiet, and everyone sort of just looked at each other.

"It's your turn Lia," Wanda said while giving Lia a soft smile, trying to comfort her friend.

"Um, what is your season?"

"Winter," Wanda said, "I love the break from school."

"Summer, it's the best time to run around outside," Pietro explained, "but you never told us what your favorite season was Lia."

"Um, Summer, because the forest get's really pretty." Soon Lia had gotten the hang out playing 20 questions, and she found out a lot of things about the twins, and even felt closer to them. She almost had the nerve to say that the twins were her first friends. No doubt her mother would be really happy to hear that tonight when she got back.

Before the trio knew it the had started to set outside of the apartment building, "well Lia, isn't your mother expecting you back for dinner soon?" Lia blushed at Magda's question and felt like maybe she had overstayed her welcome. She knew that her mother wouldn't be back for a few more hours at least. Some nights her mom wasn't even home till after midnight. Regardless of that fact Lia simply nodded her head in agreement with their mother and climbed to her feet.

"You should come play with us again tomorrow Lia," Wanda said after her, and Pietro only nodded his head along with his sister.

"Okay," Lia muttered with a meek smile, and suddenly Wanda had enveloped her with a hug.

"You look so cute when you smile Lia, you should do it more often," Wanda said as she squeezed Lia tighter. Lia was surprised at the contact but eventually returned the hug in an awkward fashion. It took a few moments for everyone to say good bye to Lia, and soon she found herself back in her room, alone. Lia quickly turned on some music after locking the door tightly behind her, but found that even the music felt like it was missing a little something. Lia sighed as she went to go sit at the window, maybe she was starting to grow attached to the feeling of having Wanda and Pietro around, they were certainly easy to be around.

Lie had only been sitting at the window for a few minutes till she heard another knock at the door. She had no idea who that could have been, and was surprised to see Pietro standing there once she had worked the door open. "You uh, you forgot your shoes," he said as he handed her the white and silver sneakers.

"Thanks," Lia said as she grabbed them from him. They stood in silence for just a few seconds before Pietro began to speak.

"I also wanted to say thanks for, you know, hanging out with Wanda and I. We don't tend to get along with others all that well, and I think she really wanted to make a female friend."

Lia only smiled and nodded shyly, "how did you know I didn't know how to play Candyland?" It had been a question that she had been asking herself since they had started playing the game that morning.

Pietro laughed before grabbed one of her orange curls and tugged it gently, "you play with your hair when you're nervous. I kind of just put two and two together."

"To get four?"

"No silly, to figure that you probably hadn't played a board game before. You don't exactly seem like the type that has a bunch of friends to play board games with, and all you and your mom have is a record player. It actually wasn't all that hard to figure out, I'm surprised Wanda didn't realize it too." Pietro looked really proud of himself for noticing Lia's nervous tick, and she had to admit she was slightly impressed. "Look, I know you probably aren't sure about this whole playing with other kids thing, but Wanda thinks you're cool, I think she likes having you around, be warned, she'll probably start acting like a big sister soon. She can get sort of bossy sometimes."

"I don't mind," Lia said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Of course you don't," Pietro said, "and you say that now, but just wait till it happens. It get's really annoying sometimes."

"But I thought you were 12 minutes older than her," Lia suggested with a small mischievous twinkle in her eyes. If Pietro hadn't been looking he probably would have missed it. Unfortunately for Lia he had been paying attention, and Pietro felt he saw a glimpse behind her shy exterior, and while he hadn't minded her before he was beginning to see why his sister was so attached to their neighbor.

"Maybe you can remind her of that sometimes. With both of us telling her maybe she'll start remembering it. Night Lia, we'll see you tomorrow." Pietro said as he nodded his head.

"Night Pietro," Lia smiled before shutting the door. She wasn't sure what it was, but Lia felt a slight tingle that stretched from her toes all the way to her face. Somehow she found herself looking forward to playing with Wanda and Pietro tomorrow even more than she had when she originally left their apartment earlier.


	4. Playground Kerfuffle

AUTHOR'S NOTE: So this one is pretty short, but I couldn't tag it on the last chapter without it being to long, so it'll have to do. I'll say one this though, the edits on this one turned one paragraph into four. I'm trying to get back into my old feel of descriptive writing, but it's been kind of hard in some places because it seem like some of the little details might be really unnecessary, I don't know though, if you guys want more description let me know, and I'll go through the old chapters and try to rewrite them with some more detail. Anyways, I'm still working on the next chapter. It's currently at 8 pages, and still not done, then I have to prof read so this is it for the speedy updating for a while. Let me know what you guys think. I'm really curious.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pietro or Wanda, but I do own Lia, so I guess that is something.

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Lia's mother had gotten home really late that night, apparently she has been the closing server at the diner. Lia wasn't all that hungry, she had a large lunch over at the twins place earlier that day, so her mother decided they would just have a large breakfast and they hunkered down for night and fell asleep sometime around 2AM.

The next morning Lia woke up to find that her mother was already gone, but there was a closed food container by where she was asleep with a little note on top. "I have to open the diner today so I had to leave a little early. The good news is that I should be back early tonight. Maybe we'll go out to eat. Have a nice day little mouse." These notes weren't new to Lia, she would probably see her mom around 5 or 6 that night, they didn't get to go out to eat often though, so she couldn't keep the little bit of excitement from coming through.

Lia finished her breakfast just in time to hear a knock at her door. Unlike the day before though she did not hesitate to open it, knowing that Wanda and Pietro would be on the other side of it. They were both dressed in warm coats and thick pants, "Hey Lia, do you want to go outside and play again today?" Lia nodded eagerly and rushed to grab her warm clothes while leaving the door open so that the twins could come inside if the wanted. Once She was finished changing she rushed back to them and gave them an excited smile. "Well someone is happy today," Wanda teased before grabbed my wrist and dragging me towards the end of the hall.

"Oh wait, I need to lock the door," Lia protested running back to secure the door properly. It took her a few seconds, but she got it fast enough and soon the three of them were heading out towards the playground. Any amount of confidence Lia had was quickly stamped away when she saw that there was more kids playing outside today. It was stopped snowing, and now only a few inches remained stuck to the ground, so parents where more likely to let their children out to play.

Sensing her unease the twins gave her reassuring looks, "it's okay Lia, we don't have to play with them, we can just play together," Wanda said as she pulled me towards the slide which was currently unoccupied, "Pietro won't anyone mess with us, right brother."

Pietro said nothing but gave me what was quickly becoming his signature wink and half smile. For some reason that made comfortable enough to run after Wanda over to the small play complex with a slide. They played for quite a while before Pietro ended up tearing his gloves somehow. "You're such a klutz Pietro," Wanda shook her head in disbelief, "how do you even rip gloves across the palm."

"With extreme skill and lots of practice," he teased her back, "I'll be right back, I'm going to go get some more from upstairs."

"Oh, okay," for some reason Wanda sounded nervous, which made Lia feel slightly unsure about Pietro leaving them, "just hurry back okay."

"I won't be long promise. You should be fine here with Lia," Pietro said giving Wanda a kiss on the forehead and sending his usual wink Lia's way. Wanda didn't look reassured though, but she tried not to look uneasy in front of her already anxious friend, but if there was anything Lia could sense it was nervousness. Wanda had the same look that Lia knew all to well from back when she use to get picked on all the time.

"Are you okay," Lia questioned.

"Yeah, Pietro is going to be right back, so we shouldn't have a problem," Wanda gave a weak smile, "let's keep playing okay." Soon they were back to playing on the slide. After a few minutes Wanda went down, and at the bottom was a group of three kids, two boys and one girl, waiting for her.

"What do you we have here," the boy in front said as he looked down at Wanda. The boy was rather large. Lia had a feeling that even if he wasn't wearing a winter jacket the kid would still be on the bigger side. He looked mean to, his black hat was lined with skulls and cross bones patterns. He had a long scar along the side of his face which helped in making his sneer extra intimidating. Lia knew that sneer, it normally came right before a bloody nose or a busted lip.

Wanda didn't back down from this stranger though, she stood up from the slide and put her hands on her hips, just daring him to mess with her, "What do you want Jason?"

The boy apparently named Jason let out a dark laugh that sent shiver's down Lia's spine. The boy didn't need to answer for her to know what he wanted, he wanted a fight. Lia had always found that the best way to get them to leave her alone was to curl in a ball and they would normally walk away after a few kicks and she would go inside, but Wanda's posture spoke clearly, if he wanted a fight she was going to give him one. For the moment Lia decided to try to make herself look as small as possible from atop the slide, silently hoping they wouldn't see her.

"Where is brother dearest?" The boy asked, as he took a step closing to Wanda so that he was nearly toe to toe with her. To Lia this boy looked at least three years older than Wanda, considering that the top of her head only came to this guy's shoulders. What was her friend thinking standing up to this guy? Clearly he meant to hurt her, why wasn't Wanda running?

"He'll be back any minute. If you're smart you'll walk away Jason."

"You punched my sister."

"She pushed me off the swing."

"Maybe you should learn how to share?"

"Maybe your sister should learn to wait her turn."

"No one asked your opinion loser," Jason spat at her feet then pushed Wanda back. She should have landed on the slide, but instead she landed to the side and hit her head against the metal. Lia felt something boil within her. She had no idea who this Jason was, but he had no right to push her friend around. Before she could stop herself Lia found she had ran down the slide and was now standing in front of the with the bully with her chest puffed out. She tried to look as threatened as possible, but that always proved a challenge with her freckled face and tiny stature. A laughter erupted from the three older kids, "look at this little ginger freak. You getting toddlers to fight your battles for you now Maximoff?"

"Leave Lia alone," Wanda cried from her spot on the ground, "she wasn't even there!"

"Lia huh," Jason said as he grabbed Lia's coat collar and lifted her up off the ground so that they were face to face, "listen here little shit. I understand you're new here, and I'm willing to look the other way this time, but I would recommend you pick your friends a little wiser. And if you ever step up to me again, I'll flatten you. Do I make myself clear?"

Now normally this is where Lia would have shrunk away from someone as big as this Jason kid, but she was riding high on this unfamiliar emotion of wanting to defend Wanda and for some reason she knew she couldn't back down now. Wanda had been the first person to ever actually try to be her friend, so now was the time to prove to her how grateful she was for the friendship. She glanced over to Wanda, who was still laying on the ground, she kept looking between Lia and the door to the apartment complex, no doubt waiting for Pietro to show himself. In that moment, Wanda desperately tried to communicate to Lia to back down by shaking her head, "it's okay Lia, let it go," clearly this Jason kid would hurt her if she didn't, but for some reason that just made Lia more determined to stand up for her new friend.

Lia turned and glared at the older kid with the fiercest look that she could muster. She could feel all the angry words that she wanted to shout in this bullies face, but she couldn't seem to verbalize any of them, so Lia did the next best thing she could think of. She took a deep breath through her nose, sucking in as much snot as she could before spitting into the bullies face. Jason threw her to the ground as he went to wipe the lugee from his eye a silence befell the playground, even the few other kids that weren't involved had gotten quiet and turned their attention towards the commotion.

The next thirty seconds seemed to move in slow motion for Lia. Wanda screamed run at the top of her lungs, but Lia didn't have the chance to stand before Jason threw himself on top of Lia, elbow first right into her chest. As Lia tried to get air back into her lungs Jason straddled her waist and move his fist back ready to start rapidly punching her in the face. Lia began to scratch at the guys arms, but his jacket was way to thick for her to do any damage. Wanda started to scream at him to stop, even moved to try to get involved, but the two girls moved to hold her back. Right as Jason let loose the first punch Pietro came running from the apartment building. He tried to reach them as fast as he could, but Jason was able to land three solid punches to Lia's face before Pietro got there and yanked Jason off from top of her.

Lia passed out as soon as Pietro had thrown the other guy to the ground and began to stomping into the older kids gut. Wanda was still screaming her head off, and although the two girls wanted to help Jason they knew they couldn't let go of Wanda, or else she would join her brother. Everyone on the playground knew the Maximoff kids were not to be messed with, while Wanda could hold her own, Pietro was a force to be reckoned with, but together they made a frightening team. After a few solid kicks to Jason's gut Pietro stopped and began to taunt him, "what's wrong Jason, can't find anyone to fight your size?" Jason only groaned in response and he curled in order to grab his stomach. This only seemed to make Pietro angrier and he kneeled down to force Jason to look him in the eye, "fight me Jason, maybe if you win you'll get to keep some of your teeth!" Pietro reared back with his elbow to start punching Jason directly in his tear and snot stained face till Wanda interrupted him.

"Pietro stop, we have to get Wanda to mom, she could be really hurt!" Pietro froze and looked back at Lia laying on her back on the snowy ground. With a frustrated growl he threw Jason to the ground, allowing the bully to curl into a ball and cover his head. Pietro scoffed as he walked towards the two girls that were still holding his sister. It didn't take long for them to get the picture, and they rushed past him over to Jason.

Pietro then turned to Lia and carefully picked her up off the ground. As he began to walk away with her secured in his arms, Wanda following behind, he turned back to say one final thing, " if he touches either of them again, she won't stop me." The threat oozed with a venomous truth, and any of the kids took notice. Pietro fixed the other kids watching from various sides of the playground with a glare that spoke louder than his words. What he just said went for any one, and it would be a playground consensus that would last for a long time, mess with either of Pietro's girl while he wasn't there, and you wouldn't know what hit you when he got there.


	5. Dr Faust

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter was going to be longer, but I just started a job that has me working crazy hours and I haven't been able to devote as much time to this story as I would have liked to, so I'm going to break this chapter up into two smaller chapters, sorry. Anyways, with my limited time this chapter also didn't get as well of a thrice over proof reading that the other chapters got, so if you spot anything let me know!

* * *

"Mom," Wanda screamed as she ran into her apartment, "mom please, Lia is hurt."

Magda took one look at the bloody girl in her sons arms before she grabbed her keys, "in the car, now," she said as she rushed them back out the door, "do you need me to carry her Pietro?"

"No," he said as his hold tightened around Lia, "I can carry her." Magda noted her sons overly protective nature of the girl, and stored his reaction for later when she wasn't in such a hurry.

It only took the family five minutes to reach their silver Ford Fiesta that was stored in the parking garage across from their building, but it felt like an eternity to the twins. Magda held the door open for Pietro, but he just looked from Lia to the back seat in confusion. "Let me see he for a second and you can just hold her in your lap." Pietro nodded and handed Lia to his mother before moving to sit in the car, "buckle in please."

"Mom," Pietro protested as if to say they didn't have enough time for such trivial matters as seat belts, but he quickly buckled in anyways then motioned for her to hand Lia back to him.

"Make sure you support her head," Magda said as she sat Lia down into Pietro's lap. She watched as he situated her in his lap so that he could put one arm around her waist and hold her to his chest and use the other arm to hold her shoulders so that her head was on his shoulder. "Good, just make sure she doesn't roll around, okay?" Pietro just nodded his head and tightened his grip so Lia was more secure in his lap.

"What happened," Magda asked as she situated herself in the front seat as quickly as she could. It normally took about 20 minutes to get to the hospital from where they were, but she was sure if they took a back road that could make the drive in as little as 15.

"It was Jason," Wanda explained, "when Pietro went inside to get new gloves he decided to pick a fight."

"This wasn't about that swing incident the other week was it?"

"Yeah it was," Wanda fiddled with the sleeve of her sweater, "sorry mom." Wanda couldn't help but feel like this was somehow her fault. If she had walked away instead of getting in a fight over a swing than this wouldn't have happened.

"It isn't you fault, sweetie," Magda told her daughter, "Jason is a bully and we all know it. One day he'll get what's coming to him, but if this was about the swings how did Lia get involved?"

"Jason told her not to be my friend anymore. He threatened her, but she stood up to him anyways" Wanda tried to fight tears from falling. No matter what her mother said Wanda still felt responsible for Lia being hurt. Swings incident aside, if she and Pietro hadn't forced Lia to be their friend than Lia wouldn't be passed out bleeding in the back seat of her mother's car.

The rest of the car ride passed in silence, Pietro couldn't say anything as he cradled Lia close to him. All he felt was rage and guilt, he should have known better. Jason had tried to bother his sister when he had his back turned before. How could he be so naive as to think that Jason would leave his sister alone just because someone else was playing with her. He should have made them go upstairs with him to get new gloves, or he should have just dealt with the small tear in his old ones. Anything would have been better than leaving the two of them alone with the other kids. Anything would be better than seeing Lia in her current state.

Pietro looked down at the broken girl cradled in his arms and took a detailed inventory of the injuries that he could see. There was blood dripping from her left brow, which was split open pretty wide. Her nose was crooked as well as a nasty purple shade, there was a thing tickle of blood from her nostrils that blended with the blood that was falling from her mouth. That was what worried Pietro the most, her lip was split like her brow, but although the gash looked like it had clotted the blood from her lips looking fresh, as if it could be coming from inside.

He had briefly seen the first blow that Jason had dealt as he exited the glass double doors of the building, and Lia was a small girl, as well as a few years younger than he and Wanda. He had heard in school that the younger someone was the softer their bones were. All Pietro could think about was the possibility that Lia was hurt on the inside as well as the outside. The only thing that lightened his spirits was the steady rhythm of her chest moving up and down.

Once they had finally reached the hospital Pietro's mother hurriedly took Lia from his arms, "take your sister and find the waiting room. I'll be there in just a minute." Magda rushed through the sliding glass doors of the hospital, "help please, this in an emergency!" The nurse from behind the front deck rushed over and took one look the girl's face before calling for backup.

Soon a team of nurses grabbed Lia from Magda's arms and rushed her back into the labyrinth of treatment rooms. "If you could come with me mam, I have a few questions for you," asked the one nurse that remained in the lobby. She walked Magda over to a glass wall, and as they turned the corner there was a series of three small makeshift cubicles where they nurses could gather personal information from various patients. "If you could have a seat at number two someone well be here shortly to ask a few questions." Magda only nodded as she sat in the uncomfortable hospital chair.

The cubicle was a bleak grayish blue, the dull atmosphere was somehow enhanced by the bleak lighting. Magda had been fortunate enough that the twins were never injured enough to have to go to the emergency room, so this was a new experience for her, she would have imagined that the room would have been a little cheerier, as it was now this room did little to help her mood.

After a few minutes a nurse entered the cubicle and quickly began to ask questions, "So what is the girls name?"

"Lia."

"Last name?"

"Oh, I um I don't know. She is a friend of my children, and her mother wasn't home, so we brought her in."

"Hm," the nurse looked at the computer screen for a second, "and your name mam?"

"Magda, Magda Maximoff."

"Okay, give me one second Mrs. Maximoff, I'm going to go check on something really quick."

Magda nodded as the nurse left. She sat for a few minutes, just looking around and reflecting on the events of the day. As she drove to the hospital she had forgotten how little she had known about Lia. She already felt connected so to the little girl that had stood up for her daughter while Pietro had been upstairs. Plus Lia's quiet demeanor made it very easy to get attached to the child.

"Well Mrs. Maximoff, you're in luck, Lia Saitov is a patient that Dr. Faust is familiar with.," the nurse said as she sat back down and began to eagerly type on the computer screen.

"I'm sorry, why is that?"

"We see Miss Saitov and her daughter quite often here. The girl attracts trouble in a way I've never seen before. I'll be able to fill out the rest of the paper work and contact her mother. If you like, you are more than welcome to wait in the waiting room till Miss Saitov arrives."

"Yes," Magda said in a slight daze, "I uh, I think we'll do that." Slowly she stood up and began to make her way out of the cubicle while wondering what the nurse meant by 'quite often' how much trouble can a girl as shy as Lia make?

"And Mrs. Maximoff," the nurse called before she exited towards the waiting room, "if it's any consolation, Lia is a tough little girl. I'm sure she'll be just fine." Magda just nodded at the nurse with the best thank you smile she could muster before leaving the cubicle.

She paused slightly outside the waiting room as she took in what the nurse had just told her. Lia visited the hospital so often that the doctor remembered her by name. 'But she is so soft spoken. I can't imagine Lia being involved in enough fights for the doctor to know her name.' After a few deep breathes she entered the waiting room to find the twins sitting on a couch. Wanda was leaning her head on her brother's shoulder, and he had his arm around her and was rubbing comforting circles into her arm.

"Is she going to be okay," Wanda asked Magda once she had made her way to the chair next to them.

"I'm sure she is sweetie, the doctor is still looking at her though. Hopefully we'll know in a few minutes. Lia's mother is on her way too, so you'll be able to meet her."

"Oh," Wanda said weakly with glazed over eyes, "I'll be right back." Slowly she got up from her seat and walked over to the bathroom.

Magda took this opportunity too get a good look at her son. Pietro looked a total mess, the front of his dark blue shirt was covered by a large brown stain from where Lia's blood had dried, and he had some blood caked on the side of his face and neck. "Maybe we should get you cleaned off a little," she said as she pulled a wet wipe from her purse and moved so she was kneeling in front of him. Pietro said nothing as she began to wipe at his cheek. "It's not you fault you know," as soon as she said that his jaw tightened. It had just been a stab in the dark at whatever was bothering him, but it seem she had hit the nail right on the head. "Jason is an awful bully, any decent young man would have never done anything like that."

"But I knew that already," Pietro said, "I should have been there."

"We've talked about this, you can't be there to protect your sister all the time. The same goes for Lia. We can try to protect our family and friends, but we can't always be there."

"But I should have been. I saw Jason on the playground. I knew he kept watching us. I should have known he was just waiting for me to walk away. My gloves weren't even that bad, I could have just kept them."

"Hush," his mother commanded, "this is not your fault Pietro, and I know you didn't let Jason walk away unscathed." Magda felt a sense of strange pride at the mischievous smirk her son gave her as soon as she suggested that Jason was hurt as well. She erupted into a bittersweet laughter and tousled his hair, "that's my boy. Now no more of this moping, I'm sure Lia wouldn't want you to feel this way."

"Yes mom."

After a few minutes Wanda came back, and the she returned to her place by Pietro's side. The family sat in what would have been silence if not for the occasional cough of someone else in the waiting room, and the alarming news on TV. Magda never understood why hospitals insisted on playing such depressing programming in an already depressing environment. Currently the TV was talking about how tensions had been because of a terrorist group located new Sokovia. _Perfect, exactly what I need to brighten up our day._

"Magda Maximoff." Magda looked surprised that her name had been called, but she walked over to the nurse anyways, "may I speak to you for a moment please?"

"Of course."

The nurse turned and left the waiting room and led Magda past the white two-way doors and back into the labyrinth of treatment rooms. After a few turns along the hallway they came to a room that had a large window so you could see in from the hall. Magda gasped at all the machines that were hooked up to Lia, who still looked passed out on the hospital bed. "Is she okay?"

"Yes mam, she's fine. She was awake a few minutes ago actually. She must had fallen back to sleep. If you would like the doctor can come talk to you in a moment about her current condition."

"Shouldn't you be consulting her mother?"

"Miss Saitov is a very busy woman. She won't be able to get off of work for another three hours. She assures us that she'll be here as soon as she can, and in the mean time she asked that you be consulted about he daughter's condition."

"But I don't even know the woman."

"Miss Saitov is a very reasonable woman. She understands her daughter doesn't trust easily. I suppose she figures if her daughter can trust you with her care that she can as well. Anyways, you're more than welcome to sit in the room, or you can wait out here. The doctor won't be long."

Magda nodded, and watched as the nurse walked away. Decided against standing awkwardly in the hall and entered Lia's room. The first she noticed was the steady beeping of the machine that was hooked through the top Lia's gown. The heart monitor wasn't the only thing hooked up to the girl. Lia had two IVs hooked into her left arm. One on the top of her hand which was connected to a bag of clear fluid, and another on the inside of her elbow which was hooked up to a blood bag. Magda hadn't imagined that Lia had lost so much blood that she would need a transfusion. There was also a clear face mask over the girl's mouth and nose that was hooked up to another machine on the girl's right. They had also cleaned up the girls face, and she could see that Lia had some stitches on her left brow as well as a thing bandage loosely covering her busted lip. They had also reset the girl's nose, leaving behind nothing but a nasty purple bruise and some swelling.

Magda walked around to Lia's left arm and observed her Ivs, for some reason the idea of the blood transfusion, as well as whatever was in the clear bag didn't sit well with her.

"She'll only need about half the bag," came a masculine voice from the door.

"Oh, doctor, sorry I was just-"

"No need, this is the first time you've seen her since you got here," the man said with a charming smile, "my name is Dr. Faust, I normally take care of Lia when she comes in." Magda shook Dr. Faust's hand and took in his clean shaven appearance. The man looked nerdy which his blonde comb over, and was rather lanky. He didn't look as charismatic as most doctor's did, but there was an air of authority about him that Magda couldn't deny.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Dr. Faust."

"Likewise, it's nice to see that Lia has someone else besides her mother looking after her. Not that Miss Saitov isn't a good mother, just that I don't think I've ever seen little Lia with anyone else."

"She is rather quiet, she seems to have enchanted my twins though."

"Good good, she is in need of a few friends. Anyways, I suppose you would like to know what is going on," Dr. Faust said as he grabbed a clipboard from besides the bed, "Lia has suffered from multiple blows to the head. the swelling around the eye and lip should go down in a few days, she'll need to keep those stitches in for at least a week. We also had to reset her nose, but the breakage was relatively small, so no permanent damage there. The problem comes from the blow to her chest. Lia is currently suffering from a pulmonary contusion, caused by a sternal fracture."

"I'm sorry what?'

"Someone fractured her sternum and now she has a damaged lung. Now the damage is minimal, it's mostly just a large bruise, however it seems to be making it a little hard for her to breath. This also caused some internal bleeding, that coupled with the two large cuts on her face caused her to lose quite a bit of blood. We did clean out some fluid from her lungs, and we'll have to keep her over night. Depending on how she feels in the morning she may be able to go home sometime tomorrow. When she does go home I would recommend keeping a close eye on her, no strenuous activity for the next week as well. It can take up to seven days for her lungs to fully heal. She's a tough girl though, she'll probably bounce back in six."

"You say that as though this is normal for her," Magda was alarmed by how casual he made Lia's injuries sound. It sounded like they could have been fatal if she wasn't rushed here.

"It is true that, if left alone, these injuries could have become very serious. However, Lia is a strange case, we don't know her name here for nothing. Her visits cycle every few months, and as far as seriousness goes, for her this is about average. It's hard for Lia to make friends you see. She is quiet, tends to watch more than talk, the other children often see her as strange and different. On a playground with a bunch of other children, being different can be dangerous. Lia often finds herself the target for many attacks. It may not seem like it, but she is a lot tougher than her small appearance lets off."

A brief silence befell the room, Magda wasn't sure what to say at this point. She had never imagined that the other kids could be so hard on someone. She thoughts about it, and realized that Lia had more in common with Pietro and Wanda than she thought. The twins came off as strange to the other children, but Pietro had always stood up for Wanda, and when fights started they always had each other, but Lia had no one. Although after today she might find it hard to ever shake the twins again.

"Now Miss Saitov won't make it for a few more hours, but you and your children are more than welcome to come sit with Lia. She'll probably be going in and out of consciousness, but the company should do her some good. You may also bring some food back here, however Lia can't eat anything heavy, I would recommend liquids while she is here, the straw would be more comfortable for the face mask."

"Thank you very much Dr. Faust," Magda said before turning to leave the room, "I'll go grab the twins, I think they would want to see her."

"The pleasure is all mine Mrs. Maximoff, if you have any other questions let a nurse know, and I'll get back to you when I can." The two adults nodded to each other, and Dr. Faust turned to leave but stopped at the door, "if you like I can have a nurse bring your kids back. That way you won't get lost trying to find your way back."

"Thank you, I would appreciate that," Magda said before watching the doctor leave the room. She sighed and looked around noticing only two chairs against the wall next to the door. She grabbed a third chair from the hall and moved them all next to Lia's bed, knowing very well that the twins would insist on sitting as close to Lia as they could.


End file.
